Happy New Test Garden Year

We are full swing in for the 2013 Test Garden Season and have started receiving plant material to propagate for our April 29, 2013 garden planting date. Right now we are up to 971 items planned so it should be a really interesting year of new items. 

We are very excited to have all the new Proven Winner items in the garden. An armored car will be bringing them to us after they are announced at the California Flower trials :) !

Hort Geek Items on the list so far:
1. A Cistus from TerraNova Nursery sounds really interesting.
2. An Alonsoa from Plant Haven-picture looks pretty.
3. Five new Pentas from Syngenta (we tested last year in the confidential garden and they were great).


Fall and Winter Test Garden
Currently in the garden we have the Fall annual trial going on. This is mainly a Pansy and Viola trial that we planted in the garden on October 29, 2012 and will keep in the ground till April.

We did a rating last week and some stand outs were:

Velocity Violas from Ecke

These are violas from cuttings and  have done very well in the cold weather. These were started from quart pots (where the rest of the garden was from 606 flats) so they were bigger at planting but they are doing great.


Brazen Brass Mustard from Sakata
This looked rough when we planted (see below) them but has quickly filled in and taken off. This has great foliage color and habit.

At Planiting

Last Week

Cool Wave Yellow
Cool Waves from PanAmerican Seed were the big news in Pansy this fall and has been well received by gardeners. Cool Wave Yellow has nice flowering and has continue to grow under the NC winter conditions. 

At Planting

Now

Fall Trial 2013-14
Next years fall trial we are going to change up a little. We are going to move the planting date up to week 39 so we get the plants better established before going into the cold. When we have the pansy open house (10/17/2013) you will be able to look at all the new items plants in pack and in then in the ground.